Penn-Trafford 2022 Athlete Cade Yacamelli Impresses During Workout, Earns Wisconsin Offer

Receiving a Division I offer isn’t anything unusual for Penn-Trafford’s Cade Yacamelli but the offer he received on Thursday was different than the other ones.

Yacamelli received an invite last month from Paul Chryst and Joe Rudolph to attend a prospects camp at Wisconsin. That workout took place on Thursday and afterwards, Yacamelli (6-feet, 200-pounds) received the exciting news that he earned an offer from Wisconsin, which is his first Power Five offer.

Courtesy of Cade Yacamelli

Pittsburgh Sports Now spoke on Friday with an excited Yacamelli, who talked about his expectations prior to the camp and walked us through the day in Madison.

“I went to the workout with a chip on my shoulder,” Yacamelli told Pittsburgh Sports Now. “I felt like I deserved more offers and I went out there to try and prove myself. Prior to the camp, I toured the campus and loved it, I loved the people around the campus and it was such a welcoming feeling. The crazy thing about the campus is yes it’s in the city but it’s not really a city campus. It’s just very unique.”

“My expectations for yesterday was to go there be myself and show the coaches what I can do. Prior to yesterday, I had a couple of phone calls with Coach Rudolph and he told me that they were looking at me as a slot receiver but also said the safeties coach likes me too. I went to the camp and started out at wide receiver and then I was moved all over the place. I started at receiver, then went to running back, then at safety and then did 1-on-1’s at both sides of the ball. At the end, they told me that they didn’t know which position they were recruiting at but knew that I was a football player and liked me at all those positions.”

Yacamelli tells PSN that following the camp that he had a good feeling about his performance although he believes that he could’ve done a bit better with some of the measurables. The Wisconsin staff also liked what they saw because they gave him the news he was hoping for later on in the day.

“They took me through their football facilities and their special teams coordinator brought my dad and I up to the coaches office,” said Yacamelli. “We hung out there for about 20 minutes and talked to him. It was so cool to see all those big-time trophies in their facility, like the Orange Bowl trophy and the Big Ten Championship trophy. After that, Coach Chryst called us back to his office. We went back there and were sitting on his couch and he looked at me and said that I had a good camp day and said that he wants me to play ball for him. At that moment, my heart dropped (laughing). It was such a great moment. After that, it was also special to be able to tell my mom, it was just awesome, very cool.”

Courtesy of Cade Yacamelli

As we wrapped up our conversation, I asked Yacamelli about where his recruiting goes from here and if he’s given any consideration to making a quick commitment to the Wisconsin program?

“Obviously, I did talk about that a bit with my family but I’m still open to other options. But, I’ll be honest, I really did enjoy Wisconsin, the campus and everything about it. I enjoyed the Wisconsin coaches, the players and everything around them. It did seem like a very special place but I am still open to everything. I’m going to continue working, continue to try and get better and continue to show these other FBS schools that I can play.”